My Reading Running and Recipe spot, plus a Ten of the Best on the occasional weekend.

Wednesday, 4 November 2015

Kit by Marina Fiorato

Kit Kavanaugh runs a tavern in Dublin in 1702, with her new husband, Richard Walsh. When he disappears to join the fighting in Italy to prevent Spain and France forming an alliance and ruling the then-world, Kit decides to become a soldier (pretending she is male) to find and help her husband. She fights in the Duke of Marlborough’s regiment, falls in love and becomes a spy.

The author, Marina Fiorato, is Venetian and has written a few historical fiction books. Her distinctive style is to paint a vivid picture of the times, dig out interesting information, research strong female characters and plot storylines that seem too good to be true. In this case, from the historical account at the end – her plotting was largely done for her by the record of events.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would recommend it to all lovers of the genre. There is a little more romance in this one than I am used to, but it didn’t detract from the evocative and powerful “Joan of Arc” type drama. Kit is beautiful, brave, determined, and you will love her and this book.

4 out of 5 stars You may also enjoy The Whip by Karen KondazianAll my reviews.

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From my reading

"That's the catch about betrayal, of course: that it feels good, that there's something immensely pleasurable about moving from a complicated relationship which involves minor atrocities on both sides to a nice, neat, simple one where one person has done something so horrible and unforgivable that the other person is immediately absolved of all the low-grade sins of sloth, envy, gluttony, avarice and I forget the other three."

― Nora Ephron, Heartburn

Thanks for reading. While you're here, you may want to check out my favourite books of 2017